Practical Technology

for practical people.

August 25, 2008
by sjvn01
2 Comments

A modest Linux USB suggestion

Did you know that there are two basic kinds of USB 2.0 drives? I didn’t. But, now thanks to Robert L. Scheier’s article, Not all USB drives are created equal, I now know that are significant differences between drives. And, in particular those differences matter a lot to live USB capable Linux distributions like Fedora 9.

The differences, in short, is differences in the memory type and their I/O controllers. The results are anything but trivial. One type of USB drive will run two to three times faster than their slower brothers and, potentially, last 10 times longer.
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August 25, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

To trust or not to trust Red Hat, that is the question

I like Linux. I like Red Hat and Fedora Linux. I use them every day. What I don’t like, though, is not knowing what’s what with the recent security break-in into the RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and Fedora file servers.

What happened, we’re told by Paul W. Frields, the Fedora project leader, “some Fedora servers were illegally accessed” during the week of August 11th. OK, fair enough, Web servers are broken into all the time. Frields then added, “The intrusion into the servers was quickly discovered, and the servers were taken offline.” OK, that’s what they should have done, but then things get more interesting.

As a result of the Fedora break-in, Red Hat checked into its RHEL servers and, Frields wrote, “Detected an intrusion of certain of its computer systems and has issued a communication to Red Hat Enterprise Linux users.” Excuse me, your people found out that your community Linux servers had been compromised before they found out that there were problems with the business Linux servers?

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August 24, 2008
by sjvn01
3 Comments

New Linux-powered Kindle on its way

The Kindle, Amazon’s Linux-powered electronic paper book will have at least one new version out for the 2008 holiday season.

The new Kindle, however, may be marketed more for college students returning to school in January rather than for finding a place under the Christmas tree. According to a report by Andreas James, Amazon will be marketing the revised “e-book reader to college students.”

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August 22, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Novell and Microsoft: Stop with the FUD already

Unlike a lot of open-source supporters, I don’t turn red with anger at the very thought of Novell working with Microsoft. Like it or not, getting Linux and Windows to work better together makes good, hard business sense. What I do find annoying is that Novell is continuing to feed Microsoft’s FUD machine about Linux.

In an e-mail interview with Ian Bruce, Novell’s public relations director, Bruce wrote me that customers wanted the Novell/Microsoft package, in part, because it “provides IP (intellectual property) peace of mind for organizations operating in mixed source environments.”

It does? Since when?

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August 21, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Mini-notebooks are here to stay

Some critics seem to think that UMPC (ultra mobile PCs) are just a fad. Wrong. They’re here to stay.

In Ultraportable laptops: Their rise and possible fall, David Haskin reports that “While pundits and technology journalists have lavished attention on these products, skeptics have raised questions. For instance, is there anything really special about these devices, or do they just represent old technology in new packaging? Are users as enthusiastic about these tiny laptops as the pundits are? Will they fade away like so many other ‘next big things?'”

Haskin goes on to report that Avi Greengart, mobile device research director at Current Analysis, for one, said that “It’s way too early to talk about this being a viable product category.”

Sorry, that’s not the case.

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August 20, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Users want Microsoft/Novell packages

While many Linux users hated the idea of the Microsoft/Novell partnership from the start, Ian Bruce, director of Novell public relations, says that “Customers drove” the latest expansion of the Novell/Microsoft deal.

In the latest chapter, Microsoft and Novell announced on August 20th that Microsoft had committed to purchase up to $100 million in SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) support certificates Essentially, once more Microsoft will be selling Novell Linux to its customers again. .

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